10:23 am, August 28, 2024
Directors at new and used car dealer group Holdcroft gave themselves a 345% pay hike last year – even though pre-tax profit fell by more than a fifth.
The newly published accounts for the year ended December 31, 2023 – filed at Companies House under T.G. Holdcroft (Holdings) Ltd – show that the Car Dealer Top 100 firm’s revenue went up by 13.7% to £750.3m but its profit before tax slumped by 21.3% to £8.04m.
Pre-tax return on sales went down from 1.54% to 1.07%, while gross margin was 7.5% at £56.037m versus 2022’s £53.125m, which was 8%.
Directors’ remuneration, however, came to £531,027 – a whopping 345% rise on the previous year’s figure of £119,259 – with the highest-paid director receiving £268,067. No figure was given for 2022.
Dividends paid during the year totalled £3,812,100 but the directors recommended that there shouldn’t be a final dividend.
The average number of employees rose during the year from 617 to 651.
In the accompanying strategic report, signed on behalf of the board by managing director Chris Greenhall, Holdcroft said new retail sales for Nissan, Volvo and Mazda went up, but there was ‘a retraction of volumes’ for Honda – down 8% for new and 7% for used.
The company said: ‘This is very much reflective of the Honda network in the UK but there are green shoots with new products being made available in the UK market through 2024 and a determination from the manufacturer to have a presence in the EV space.’
On the subject of EVs, Holdcroft slammed the previous government for pushing the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars and vans to 2035.
It said the move ‘had a detrimental effect on what was an increasing retail electric vehicle market and this created a level of apathy from the consumer towards EVs which has continued through into 2024’.
Holdcroft directors said 2023 had ‘been a challenging year within the retail motor sector with some significant outside factors making huge impacts to the overall profitability of our organisation’.
They cited ‘multiple increases in interest rates’, which led to an extra 1.25% on ‘financing costs on both our short and medium-term borrowings as well as our day-to-day inventory stocking facilities provided by our manufacturer partners’.
The board commented: ‘This burden added severe pressure to our fixed cost bases and was felt most within our sales departments.’
However, they said of the financial performance that they were ‘extremely proud of the outcome and believe this sits as one of our best annual achievements in recent years’.
The directors added: ‘Although the financial result is less than that of the past two years, the journey has been a much tougher one and given the increases in costs, driven principally by interest rates and inflation, we feel that the company is on a very firm footing as we tackle the changes in the automotive landscape that the next few years will bring.’
Holdcroft’s roots stretch back almost 60 years, having been established in 1966, and it now has 28 sites across the Midlands and north-west of England, representing GWM, Omoda, Jaecoo, Genesis, Volvo, MG, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan, Honda, Renault, Dacia and Alpine.
Holdcroft’s Renault and Dacia showrooms in Hanley are pictured at top via Google Street View
